Shōgi Kudō
(clone) | birthday = October 8 | age = 18 | gender = Male | height = 6'0" | weight = 178 lbs | blood type = | affiliation = | occupation = Employee at the Getsueikirite shop | previous occupation = | team = | previous team = | partner = | base of operations = Getsueikirite shop | relatives = (creator) | education = High School | signature skill = Spiritual Force | storyline = Welcome to the Dawn 1 | roleplay = | japanese voice = | english voice = | spanish voice = }} Shōgi Kudō (駆動 将棋, Kudō Shōgi) is a clone, the results of a failed experiment by former captain, , in an attempt to clone a living Quincy. He is currently enrolled in Kagamino High School and is employed by Raian Getsueikirite. Appearance Shōgi is average height for his age, with very short hair brown hair and deep brown eyes. He commonly wears the school uniform of Kagamino High School; a blue vest with silver trim and a silver, flower-shaped, pendant on his chest. When in his spiritual body, his outfit doesn't change, like most other spiritual beings like him, who wear a shihakushō. He occasionally changes outfits to match a mission's necessities, such as terrain and other factors. Recently, he sticks to a plain grey military outfit, which fits him well. Personality Shōgi's being a clone has had noticeable effects on his personality, though he doesn't seem to have inherited any from the numerous Quincy he was cloned from. Due to his cloning, he has often run into identity crises, wondering if he really is himself and not just a replica of his original templates. During his training with Raian, though, he managed to at least gain some self-confidence, as Raian always told him that he was a unique individual despite his upbringings. Though he was never "told" his origins, occasionally memories, that may have been a side effect of Mayuri's experimentation on him, will surface, which have allowed him to know his past. Another potential side effect of the cloning on his personality is that he seems to have a lust for combat, something that is unnatural, even of a typical human. He loves to battle, and is good at it. These two "side effects" have played a central role in the development of the rest of his personality, as it has grown up around hiding these two things. Though he was "born" to a human mother and father, he was primarily raised by Raian from age twelve onward. While Raian trained him to be loyal to his friends and a kind person, he also taught him to be ruthless when it came down to it; an unstoppable force. Over his relatively short lifespan, Shōgi has demonstrated many sides to his personality. Due to his past, and his origins as a clone, he often feels great rage, hate, and fierce resentment, though after being raised by Raian, he gained an innate sense of loyalty to the friends he made, be they Shinigami or Human, and often tended to lean towards this side of his personality. Shōgi longs for one thing that he can call his own, something his templates never had. He finds this in his godfather, Raian Getsueikirite and in Yahweh, the creator of the universe. This has caused him to live solely to protect the former and defend the interests of the latter; even to the point where he is willing to sacrifice the Human world and the entire Reikaitei in order to fulfill these two goals. History Shōgi's past is one littered with conspiracy; as even his name, Shōgi Kudō, isn't his birth name. Raian Getsueikirite has commented that Shōgi being able to "naturally use Spiritual Force" is next to impossible, as he isn't part of the Human clan that produces them, nor was he influenced by the Hōgyoku that was considered the only other alternative to awakening spiritual force. Indeed Shōgi wasn't born with that talent in the natural sense; he was the result of a failed experiment on Quincy by former Twelfth Division captain, , dubbed Project Shōgi, named after the Japanese game of shōgi (where Shōgi derives his first name from). During Mayuri's experiment, the Shinigami scientist gathered DNA from several Quincy he had killed, including , the last of his victims, to create a Quincy clone for his experiments. During the cloning process, Mayuri tampered with the part of Shōgi's DNA that controlled his reiseī concentration, which resulted in Shōgi inheriting an unnatural control of the metaphysical energy known as Spiritual Force. Mayuri continued to tamper with the clone, realizing that the process that he developed wasn't producing a Quincy at all; instead, he had simply made a spiritually aware Human, though he was ignorant of the clone's true power. Soon, however, Mayuri's experiment was discovered by the other captains of the and he was forced to abandon it. Not wanting to kill the now baby Shōgi, they implanted him within the womb of a human woman on earth, intending for him to lead a normal human life away from Soul Society. This was disrupted, however, when his spiritual powers began to manifest themselves via his emotions, which spiritual force reacts to. Shortly after his twelfth birthday, Shōgi stumbled into Raian's shop in ; having mistaken it for a grocery store. After meeting Raian, and the latter learning about Shōgi's latent reiseī powers, he began coming to the shop twice weekly to undergo training. Raian, being a , also trained Shōgi in . When he turned eighteen, Raian gave Shōgi a katana as a gift and officiated him as a "defender of Kagamino City"; marking the beginning of his adventures. Plot Welcome to the Dawn arc Shōgi is first seen greeting his teacher, Raian Getsueikirite, as he returns from a year long voyage to the Americas. The two then spend the morning discussing the events of the previous year, and the discovery of Raian in the Americas; a shard of the Hōgyoku. Powers & Abilities : Since he has spiritual awareness, the ability to see and , he does have some spiritual energy, but not a significant amount. Raian notes that Shōgi doesn't even have enough spiritual energy to form any type of . : Having been trained by Raian Getsueikirite himself, Shōgi is incredibly talented with wielding a blade in combat. He can easily go toe-to-toe with Raian himself in sparring matches. He can also effectively use two bladed weapons at once in combat, showing absolute ruthlessness when he does so. Behind the Scenes Shōgi has had many inspirations and was one of the funnest characters to create. His original inspiration was , as he was meant to be a Quincy clone. However, as my idea for Spiritual Force developed, I decided to make him a failed Quincy clone that reverted into a human during the cloning procedure, but gained the aforementioned power, which is exceedingly rare. His appearance and abilities are suppose to be a nod towards Galen Marek, a.k.a "Starkiller", from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed I & II, though he wasn't based on Starkiller at all. His character overall allowed me to try out a new character type that I dubbed the "Post-Dramatic Disorder type". It is exactly as the name implies; a character that has a traumatic experience in his youth and suffers greatly from it. He also has an identity problem, because he is a clone trying to decide whether he is his own person or simply a shadow of a long dead person. He is also slightly based off of me, though I tired to steer away from that as much as possible, due to Raian being totally based on me. He is instead who I would be if the Bleach universe was real instead of just being my current self in Shinigami form, like Raian is. Trivia * His theme song, as picked out by his creator, is "Up is Down" by Hans Zimmer. Appearances Category:Quincy Category:Male